Shakespeare Sonnet 44
‘If the dull substance of my flesh were thought’
In sonnet 44, the ever-cogitative speaker contemplates the meaning of space and distance from the beloved, as he dramatizes the differences between flesh and thought.
First Quatrain: “If the dull substance of my flesh were thought”
The speaker begins by contemplating a scenario in which his body could take on the attributes of a thought. Because thought can move from one place to another in an instant, if the speaker himself were “thought” instead of “flesh,” he could flit through space as effortlessly as a thought can flit through the mind from one idea to the next. If he could move so expeditiously, then distance would not be “injurious.”
Nothing could stop him from moving from one place to the next, and thus he could follow his beloved as easily as he follows one idea to another. Or he could, “be brought, / From limits far remote, where thou dost stay.”
Second Quatrain: “No matter then although my foot did stand”
The second quatrain reiterates the fact of the rapidity and “nimble[ness]” of thought: it can “jump both sea and land.” If the beloved flies off the Asia, the lover, in thought, can fly off to Asia with the beloved. Even if the beloved removes to a far planet, the lover can follow in thought.
This speaker is quite taken with the speed of thought, and by wishing his body had such powers, he begins to realize the efficacy of the creative powers inherent in thought. He finds a contradiction, but also a paradox, but waits for the next quatrain to resolve its mystery.
Third Quatrain: “But, ah! thought kills me that I am not thought”
In the third quatrain, the speaker seeks to sooth his necessity for reliance of physics: although it “kills [him] that [he is] not thought,” he can realize that despite his earthy composition of “earth and water,” he can and “must attend time’s leisure with [his] moan.”
While bestowing a moan on “time’s leisure” may seem a pale duty compared to the fairy-like abilities of flitting from planet to planet, the speaker knows that his liabilities work to his advantage: if he, in fact, had such speed in body, he would lack the motivation to create the products that result from his “attend[ing]” to “time’s leisure.”
So as he “moan[s]”, he creates, and his creativity is vastly more important to him than remaining in grasping distance of another physical being, as is evident from the many sonnets devoted to exploring every nuance of his talent.
The Couplet: “Receiving nought by elements so slow”
Since the speaker’s body is made up of earthly elements, water and earth, his mind is governed by those same elements. On the one hand, he is exasperated to be slowed down to what seems like a turtle’s pace; yet, on the other hand, it is his own mind that is capable of realizing the nature of the speed of thought.
His “heavy tears” are converted to a “badge of [] woe,” and he gladly shares that badge like a badge of honor with his own creative mind.
Other Shakespeare articles: Who is Shakespeare?
Sonnet Commentaries: Sonnet 1, Sonnet 2, Sonnet 3, Sonnet 4, Sonnet 5, Sonnet 6, Sonnet 7, Sonnet 8, Sonnet 9, Sonnet 10, Sonnet 11, Sonnet 12, Sonnet 13, Sonnet 14, Sonnet 15, Sonnet 16, Sonnet 17, Sonnet 18, Sonnet 19, Sonnet 20, Sonnet 21, Sonnet 22, Sonnet 23, Sonnet 24, Sonnet 25, Sonnet 26, Sonnet 27, Sonnet 28, Sonnet 29, Sonnet 30, Sonnet 31, Sonnet 32, Sonnet 33, Sonnet 34, Sonnet 35, Sonnet 36, Sonnet 37, Sonnet 38, Sonnet 39, Sonnet 40, Sonnet 41, Sonnet 42, Sonnet 43, Sonnet 73, Sonnet 96, Sonnet 116, Sonnet 126, Sonnet 130, Sonnet 138
